1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to the field of secure electronic communications between two or more electronic communications devices. More particularly, and without limitation, the present disclosure relates to systems and methods for establishing a secure communication link between electronic communications devices in which users of the devices are authenticated to establish the secure communication link.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Internet has experienced explosive growth and use in recent years. Moreover, with the advent of smartphones, tablets, and personal digital assistants (PDAs), users have become accustomed to transmitting and receiving information from users of other devices on a regular basis and from any location. A vast amount of such electronic communication, however, remains vulnerable to access by third party eavesdroppers, who may access the information in transit between the communicating electronic devices and/or users. It is desirable to exchange information privately between the participating devices, without allowing unauthorized access to the information.
A variety of methods have been proposed to establish secure communication links between devices. Some of these methods rely on encryption of the information before it is communicated. This requires providing a recipient device with means to unencrypt the information upon receipt. Although the information may be encrypted during transit, current methods may not prevent a rogue user with access to another user's device from accessing the encrypted information received by that user's device.